INSECTS. 



181 



for the cheerful note of his green songster, with its constant repetition of 



'Katy did' or * Katy, she did' — no one was ever told what Katy did do 



— is in marked contrast with the monotonous, 



ear-rasping chirp of many other forms. During 



the day the katydid sits quiet ; but as the shades 



of evening approach, he takes his place on the 



top of some leafy branch, and commences his 



ditty. We have several species of katydids, 



differing slightly in form and color, some having 



long wings and some short, but only one of these 



has the note which gives the name ; others chirp 



in different syllables and different keys. 



The locusts are the most numerous and most 

 injurious of all the Orthoptera, and with us the 

 most prominent of all is the ' hateful locust,' the 

 grasshopper of the West, which periodically clev- FlG - 167 - — Katydid (Ctjrtophyiius 



° x L ' * " concavus). 



astates the territory between the Rocky Moun- 

 tains and the Mississippi. The appearance of the swarms is irregular ; they 

 will appear for three or four years together, and then the country will have 

 a respite. In the earlier years they did but little damage to human inter- 

 ests, because then the farms were few and far between ; but as the plains 

 became settled, they became a serious pest, and at last their invasion during 

 the years 1873-76 was disastrous, and in the single year of 1874 they are 

 estimated to have destroyed crops to the amount of fifty million dollars ; 

 and in 1875, in Missouri alone, the loss to the farmers is placed at fifteen 

 million dollars. 



These ravages gave rise to a loud call for aid, and in 1877 the Congiv 

 of the United States authorized the appointment of a commission of 

 entomologists, to devise means to check the ravages. This commission 

 studied the subject in every aspect. They obtained a knowledge of where 

 the animals breed, the different dates at which swarms have been recorded, 

 descriptions of the various processes — some valuable, others utterly use- 

 less — which have been proposed to destroy the grasshoppers and their 

 eggs. They fought the nuisances by studying their anatomy, embryology, 

 and histology, and by preparing an extensive bibliography — and the 

 locusts succumbed. In 1877 they did comparatively little damage, and 

 since that time only sporadic cases have been reported. 



The western grasshopper is a small species, the general appearance of 

 which is shown in our cut. The general color is a reddish-brown, with 

 darker spots, the wing-covers being an ashy brown dotted with darker, and 

 the average length is about an inch and a third. It seems hardly credible 



